AB-MP3-1965-005 — Inner Space (1965)

Technical information

Title : Inner Space
Date : 1965
Technique : Oil on paper
Dimensions : 50 × 65 cm
Location : Unknown

Biographical / historical context

Within the major monochrome plates of 1965, Inner Space offers an especially explicit formulation of Breuillaud’s thinking: the painting as cavity, as a closed world where forms in the making condense. The artist moves away from the strong colours of 1963–1964 to return to a kind of “mental engraving” made of rubbings, reserves, and incisions—an approach capable of constructing an autonomous interior. The work belongs to the core of MP3 plates disseminated by Pillement in 1967, where the idea of matrix and internal cartography becomes structural.

Formal / stylistic description

The image is contained within a vast oval form, thick at the edge, like a membrane delimiting a territory. Inside it, a multiplicity of hybrid figures floats in a dark matter: elongated silhouettes, rounded heads, animal fragments, cellular volumes, and barely anthropomorphic signs. No centre dominates; space is distributed into pockets and chambers, punctuated by white reserves that create relief and make bodies surge forth almost by breach. Fine, irregular incisions trace living boundaries—fissures, conduits, partitions—organizing proliferation without normalizing it. The overall impression is that of a suspended microcosm subject to low gravity: forms do not fall; they drift, brush past one another, and cling to the walls, as if the oval were a breathing space.

Comparative analysis / related works

The plate extends the oval morphology of The Reverse Side of the Mirror (AB-MP3-1965-001), while accentuating its density and “populated” dimension. Compared with Pearl Night (AB-MP3-1965-004), where a central figure hierarchizes the scene, Inner Space privileges pure multiplicity and diffuse circulation. The dialogue with Brownian Motion (AB-MP3-1965-002) takes place on the terrain of fragmentation; here, however, the energy seems less chaotic, more held by the logic of the membrane. This organization into chambers and pockets foreshadows certain broader surfaces of 1966, when the oval-world will become the support for a harder, more taut vibration.

Justification of dating and attribution

The paper format, the silvery monochrome range, and the combined use of rubbing and reserve place the work within the vocabulary of MP3 plates of 1965. The figures remain embryonic and plastically supple, without the sharper edges and more violent oppositions that will characterize 1966. Stylistic coherence with the other plates reproduced in 1967, as well as the visible signature, confirm the dating and attribution.

Provenance / exhibitions / publications

Reproduced in Pillement, Visages du Monde, 1967, in the “Mutations” section. Current location undocumented; probably in a private collection.